Posted
by
timothyon Friday November 06, 2009 @07:30AM
from the wasn't-flapping-at-the-time dept.

TechRev_AL writes "A team from the University of Washington has attached an RFID chip capable of sensing neural activity to a live moth, to pick up the spikes that occur as it beats its wings. Most neural implants are still relatively bulky, but the Washington researchers wanted to show the components in an RFID could be adapted for the same purpose. The NeuralWISP chip is a collection of low-power components such as a specialized signal amplifier, on a circuit board just over two centimeters long. The circuitry converts usable power from the reader — roughly 430 microwatts — to a voltage that can turn on a microcontroller. The sensor is also configured to 'wake up' only when a neuron fires. The ultimate goal is to create more compact, wirelessly-powered brain and nervous system implants for people."

You know all those "the government place a transmitter in my brain" people are going to have a field day with this one. Now they get to panic about government mind-control and RFID (or in their lingo "the mark of the beast") at the same time.

I was thinking that this would make a good DARPA project. The Intelligence community has been looking for a method to send a listening device to a place without human intervention for some time. I was thinking that a female Praying Mantis would make a better courier. The problem with using apex predators is that they often do other things that might draw attention.

I just hope they don't remotely control spiders in the future... I hate those things:P

Seriously? Because a remote controlled jumping-spider (with cameras) would be the coolest RC toy ever. Have you ever seen how fast those things are? They don't even move, they just shift through time over small distances.

Yep, this is precisely what I was thinking. Actually, they lost me at "circuit board". Who hasn't seen simple electronics built without one that are way smaller as a result? It's a fucking moth, there's no enclosure into which you would install a PCB.

Waaay back in 2002 we built a similar device for lab rats for my senior EE project. A little helmet stuck electrodes into the rats brain and fed the signals to a little 2cm x 1cm backpack that had a little amp, mux, a2d and fm transmitter. Used to study what areas of the rats brain were responsible for drug addiction. They actually juiced the rats on cocaine. Hence ours was WAY COOLER and we were drunk half the time.:P

Moths with RFID chips implanted will not only make it easier for large retailers to keep track of their inventory, it will also help them to cut down on the rising number of moth pick pocketing (moth pocketing).

Heck, they might even be able to track consumer behavior: What else are moth-buying consumers interested in?

Usually moths are located in the rice and grain isle, but this new research might enable retailers to move them over to another part of the store, to sell other products as well. For example,